CBO says Full Repeal of Obamacare would be Better than New GOP Plan

For years conservatives and even GOP moderates have argued that the government take over of our healthcare system was a massive government overreach that would not stand if they gained control of Congress. The voters finally decided that the GOP was right and that the Democrats had squandered the public trust and so they handed the reins of power to the Republican Party. First the American people gave the GOP a massive majority in the House, then the Senate, and finally they handed the Republican Party the keys to the White House. So when the GOP arrived in Washington, D.C. did they immediately vote to repeal Obamacare?

Instead they began tinkering with plans to reform, readjust, and reimagine socialist healthcare in their own image. This is not what they promised us.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the GOP healthcare plan and it did not deliver great news for Republican hopes of passage. In fact, by the CBO’s estimates the nation would actually be better off if the GOP simply fully repealed Obamacare instead of using the GOP’s current plan!

In 2015, CBO evaluated a straight full repeal of Obamacare, without any replacement, and it found that coverage would actually be slightly better than what it would be under the House Republican plan being pushed by Speaker Paul Ryan. Whereas the Ryan plan would, according to the CBO, leave 51 million uninsured in 2025, two years ago, the CBO projected under a full repeal (without a replacement), 50 million would be uninsured. Now, it’s quite possible that the CBO would score full repeal differently now, given a different set of underlying assumptions. But it’s hard to see how the basic picture would change much.

As Klein goes on to explain in his piece the reason that the GOP plan is worse than full repeal is simple. The GOP plan keeps much of Obamacare in place, but removes most of the mechanisms which would help the public actually purchase insurance. Meaning, Obamacare stays expensive but there is no government help to pay for it. Meanwhile, with a full repeal the customer has to pay the costs on their own BUT repeal also gets rid of much of Obamacare’s regulations making healthcare MUCH cheaper and thus, easier to afford.

The truth is that the GOP was “too clever by half” and they’ve only made life more difficult for themselves (and by extension everyone else) in their attempt to soothe Democrats by keeping some of Obamacare in place while removing other parts of the law. As Klein concludes in his piece, “Instead of trying to game out the eccentricities of the Senate and predicting the moves of the parliamentarian and of moderate Senators, House Republicans should be focusing on passing what they promised — legislation that fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with a true free market alternative.”

Exactly. Forget the gimmicks, the ploys, and the overwrought plans… just do what you said you would do and REPEAL Obamacare.

I am the supreme law of the United States. Originally comprising seven articles, I delineate the national frame of government. My first three articles entrench the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure subsequently used by the thirteen States to ratify it. I am regarded as the oldest written and codified constitution in force of the world.

Please leave your comments below

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.